Syria’s Assad to deliver speech on Thursday, says report

According to the report, Assad will likely announce the abolition of decree 49, which makes membership of the Muslim Brotherhood a crime punishable by death in Syria, although sentences are usually commuted to long prison terms.

The president will also make amendments in the Article 8 of the Syrian constitution, which declares his Baath Party to be “leader of the Syrian government and society,” the report added.

The Syrian government is engaged in a deadly crackdown on protesters who since March have been demanding the end of 48 years of rule by the Assad-controlled Baath party.

-NOW Lebanon

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